Jacksonville's Apex Technology plans to build new headquarters, add up to 60 jobs

Apex Technology plans to build a new headquarters and add up to 60 jobs in Jacksonville, the city announced Wednesday. The company provides structural engineering services for the construction industry, and the jobs would be for engineers and technicians.

They would pay an average of $56,750 a year plus benefits, according to documents filed with the city, and would be filled by the end of 2019.

The company would receive up to $36,000 in city money and $144,000 in state funds, according to legislation filed Wednesday. City Council has not voted on the incentive package yet.

The company’s headquarters is currently located on Sutton Park Court off Hodges Boulevard. But Mike Kozlowski, president of the company, said it’s long outgrown those offices.

“Back before the downturn, we were going to build a building,” he said, “but it was a great idea that we didn’t. It would have broke us. But now the construction industry has come back so quickly that it’s time.”

Apex estimated that it would spend $5.4 million on the new headquarters, counting land, building and fixtures.

The company’s expansion is indicative of what’s happening in the construction industry, said Aaron Bowman, senior vice president of business development for JAXUSA Partnership, the regional economic development arm of the Jacksonville Chamber of Commerce.

Kozlowski said he didn’t know exactly where the 15,000-square-foot headquarters will be, but he had an idea about the general area.

“We’re all beach people,” he said. “We may work off Hodges, but we all live at the beach.”

He said that groundbreaking would probably take place next year.

The company was founded in Jacksonville Beach to work with the light frame construction industry. In addition to the Jacksonville headquarters, it has offices in Tampa and Frederick, Md.

It also has an affiliate, True House, which manufactures trusses on Alta Drive in North Jacksonville.